A local coffee shop charges $3.35 for a medium latte with two shots of espresso, and $3.70 for a large latte with three shots of espresso. Additional shots of espresso cost $0.65. I normally just order a medium latte with an extra shot because I know that it's not worth the $0.30 savings to try to get a large latte without the full load of steamed milk.

Today I was feeling frisky, so I attempted to order a "large latte in a medium cup." The immediate response was "that's impossible." I was reminded of Carol Beer.

After some back and forth, one of the more experienced baristas offered some assistance and said "just order a large latte with room."

That almost worked... tomorrow I'm going to order "a large latte with room with room with room with room with room." Hopefully they can hit the "with room" button enough to simulate my paying an extra $0.30 for a negative amount of milk.

I forgot about you. Sorry if you've been feverishly refreshing this page since October.

I've been having fun exploring my new job and my new town. A bulleted list:

• I've gotten back into climbing.
• I haven't done as much hiking as I'd like because there's too much to do that's more convenient than a 40 minute bike ride over to the other side of the Golden Gate Bridge.
• I ride my bike to work every day. The weather here is obnoxiously flawless.
• I've gotten even more snobby about beer, as you may have noticed from my beerblog.
• I still suffer with javans, but at least a significant portion of this batch seems to understand that there's a world outside of their Most Holy Virtual Machine.
• I've had a lot of visitors, and I've got a bunch more over the coming months. It's fun living somewhere that people want to visit! (When are you visiting, again?)

I've gotta get back to visiting with family... I'm in Clinton, Missouri for the weekend for my grandmother's funeral. It's been nice spending time with a side of the family I rarely see, even if it required a rather epic three flight journey. (Thanks for visiting me at one of those airports, Jay & Becca!)

I'm finally moving from doing nothing to having a job again! It's in a wildly different industry from anything I've done before, so I'm really looking forward to learning whatever there might be to learn. (I'm still not entirely sure what it actually entails, but life's much more fun when upcoming challenges are able to blindside you.)

Since my last post, I've attempted two hiking trips, vaguely gotten back into climbing, visited a few cities, dabbled in a few interesting but largely useless projects and wondered about where I'd end up after this last round of shakeups came to a close. San Francisco it is!

The hiking trips were both abortive efforts, the first lasting less than a day before my waterlogged boots forced my knees out of the woods and the second ending a day early after a little gastroparty with my friend E. coli. Even so, it was nice to get back to the woods for a little while. Note to self: avoid the spinach omelet at that diner near Penn.

As for those projects, a couple of them are too facile to give much mention, including a bit of an extension to a bit of sample code I whipped up last spring and a beefing up of the guts of my beerblog. The others weren't really fun enough to provide my wandering noggin with enough incentive to finish, they included an automatic crossword puzzle solver (feed in the weekly Merle and it'd output the solution or melt the internet trying) and an implementation of a few of the Project GIPF games (this has been done to a pulp, it was more of a way to rewet my feet with some infrequently used tools).

I suppose now's a good time to get back to packing for my upcoming move... luckily I don't really own anything, so I ought to be able to jam the majority of my necessary possessions into my luggage. I return to employment on Friday!

I reached the end of the trail on Sunday, August 17 at 10:30am. Since then I've tried vainly to find words to express what I felt after climbing to the peak of Katahdin, but the truth is I really don't know what I felt. It was a strange mixture of excitement, relief, sadness and joint pain. I had an amazing adventure filled with unforgettable moments, some painful or dangerous but most pleasurable. If you ever want to experience true bliss in your life all you need to do is walk over 2000 miles, spend a full month of that walking through 6" deep mud in neverending cold rain, and then find yourself laying on a warm rock in the middle of a placid lake soaking in the sun and the breathtaking view of the very last mountain you'll climb on your journey.

After my last post, we had a few more crummy days but then things started to dry out. We relied on the kindness of our fellow hikers (HUGE thanks, Shiloh!) to get around a river that was so swollen it wasn't even safe in a boat, and to provide information on the conditions of upcoming river crossings. It took a few days of "normal" Maine weather before the world started to dry out and we were no longer hiking through overflowed riverbanks and four foot deep bogs.


The last several days were some of the best I've ever had, with one particularly perfect day standing out, making whatever suffering I'd endured completely worthwhile. The weather was great all day, allowing us to stop at several crystal clear, warm lakes and either swim or just soak our feet. (When the weather's bad, there's very little desire to stop at all... just keep going and get the day over with ASAP.) At one of those lakes, a group who had canoed in a bunch of food decided they had canoed in too much so we inherited a dessert from them. At another lake, we sat on a rock and stared at Katahdin looming on the horizon. Yet another lake, we went for a swim and hung out with Pippi and Hamburglar... it was then that we realized that the far end of that lake had a sandy beach with a small spring, so we decided to hike the rest of the length of the lake and then camp. I built a small fire on the beach of this perfectly calm, quiet lake disturbed only by the occasional loon call and the sound of bats zooming along the water, and we all stayed up as late as possible, not wanting the day to end.


The day we climbed Katahdin, we got up at 3:30am to cover the rest of the miles before we actually started our ascent. The climb itself was incredibly fun, with a couple of miles of technical bouldering above treeline. Once I made it to the top, I snapped a couple of pictures and then took refuge between some boulders with my emergency blanket to stave off hypothermia while I waited for Stripe and Forest Gimp to arrive. I was on top for 70 minutes, and apparently my lips turned blue. I didn't progress to anything more than mild hypothermia, but I sure was cold. Next time, I'll have to remember to climb a little slower.


Thanks to everyone who helped make my hike a truly wonderful experience, most notably my Dad. My logisticians Mom and Scottie made the whole thing possible, I'd have been awfully hungry without their help! Thanks to everyone I hiked with, from Stinger and Swamp Dogg at the very beginning to Forest Gimp and Stripe at the very end, and everyone in between. Big thanks to the various people along the way who saved either my hike or my sanity, including Ron Haven, Elmer, Troutbum, Jennifer and Barry Stoots, Tucker Maxwell, the people of Maine, Bearfoot, Stripe and Forest Gimp. I'm very sure I'm omitting someone, I'll probably be editing this for a while before I'm satisfied I've enumerated everyone. Oh, here are a couple that I almost forgot: George Washington Carver and Lee Zalben of Peanut Butter & Co! Without peanut butter, I might have wasted away to nothing. (Lee Zalben did for peanut butter what George Washington Carver did for peanuts... try the White Chocolate Wonderful, you'll be a believer!)

The weather in Maine is worse than I could possibly have imagined. Every single day is depressing, especially when you have to go hiking. The trail is so sloppy that by the end of the day, you've got mud caked so heavily on your shoes and legs that you can't discern their original shape.

We've had one day so far since I got into Maine where there were any views at all, which I suppose was nice. It's frustrating going over what could be stunning scenery and seeing only the 50 yards around you. There are only so many pictures depicting bad weather that I can take... gray is gray is gray.

Since my last entry, I've changed tack a bit... Jordan and I were hanging out in Andover when Forest Gimp showed up, so the three of us went to dinner and decided to finish our long distance slog together on August 18th. If it wasn't for the commiseration, I'm pretty sure I'd either have quit or gone completely insane by now. Having other people around makes decisions like "let's just sit around and watch TV today, because they're calling for 2 inches of rain" a lot easier. And hiking together makes a day of miserable hiking go a lot faster... it's been story time for Gimp and I for the last few days.

I think our (un)merry band of muddy hikers has picked up another member: Stripe! The guy who inherited the beard book after I read it. It'll be good to have two resident beard experts in our miserable gang of wet hikers.

The good news is that Maine is an amazingly friendly place. I think since everyone here is depressed thanks to the weather, they all try to be as warm and welcoming as possible. When Forest Gimp and I pulled into town a couple of days ago, we got into the mudroom of the local pub and started taking our wet shoes off when the waitress came running up and said "COME IN! COME IN! SIT DOWN! WHAT CAN I GET YOU?" without any worry that we were dripping mud all over the place. Normally, people are ticked if you smell bad; here, people are ticked until you're warm and comfortable.

I should probably get back to laying around and watching TV... this internet thing is really wearing me out. I thank you for your continued prayers for a sudden, drastic drought in Maine. If it rains for too much longer, they're going to have to get the National Guard in here with a million Shop-Vacs... or just change the US map to remove Maine because it's officially become part of the Atlantic Ocean.

The countdown to August 18th begins! From here on out, my strategy is to spend as few nights in the woods as possible. So far so good, Gimp and I have figured out how to cover almost 100 miles with only one night outside. Too bad the 100 Mile Wilderness won't be so well-roofed.

The Whites were absolutely incredible. The miles didn't come easy, but the scenery made it all worth it. There's just nothing like hiking for hours above treeline, watching clouds form far below you. Keep your eyes open though, because they form below you then get huge and come right at you. Weather moves extremely quickly up here!

I had the very rare pleasure of being atop Mt. Washington without clouds, wind or other people. I got such an early start that day that I even was able to pee on the cog tracks without getting arrested or put on The List.

The entire time I was hiking the White Mountains, the weather was absolutely amazing... as soon as I was out of the Whites, however, things went downhill fast. And as soon as I got to Maine, things went way downhill, way fast. Since I just wrapped up my first full day in Maine and it's fresh in my mind, I'll summarize:

• I broke my camera.
• I snapped a trekking pole.
• I dislocated my left thumb.
• I scraped the flesh off both of my palms.
• I scraped the back of both calves.
• I turned my left ankle badly enough to have to down some ibuprofen immediately.
• I landed on my right knee hard enough to lose feeling in my foot, twice.
• I had to run and find shelter from thunderstorms, once in a cave and once by hurrying down an exposed rock face (resulting in the palm damage).

Yes, that all happened today. Probably the most miserable day on the trail, though that's an awfully strong statement... maybe I should reserve judgement of such things until I'm done with the trail. Then I'll be able to impartially compare today with the day Mr. Burns broke or the day I nearly broke in Grayson Highlands.
At least for tonight I have found a real roof to sleep under, and have laundered and showered and life is happy. Tomorrow I hit the trail again, hopefully covering a lot of ground... I'm a half day behind where I want to be!

Also staying at this hostel: Jordan! I haven't seen that kid since Erwin, TN, roughly 1500 miles ago! (He sends his regards, Mr. Burns.)

This post would be more coherent, but I spent most of my day screaming expletives at the uncaring trees and cursing the unending wilderness. That plum tuckered me out.

(Hand me the ringer, chop-chop!)

Vermont was a blast. It was great to get back into mountains, see some views and enjoy actual wilderness again, fleeting though it was. I scooted through Vermont's 150 miles in 6 days, going over ski slopes (walking up a green circle... not as easy as skiing down it) and moose droppings. Did you know that moose are scary? I didn't until my first night in Vermont when some local hikers were talking about how they're more scared of moose than they are of bears. A bear will only maim you, a moose will flatten you leaving naught but a hiker pancake.

Of the five nights I camped in Vermont, only two of them were with other people. I had shelters all to myself three nights in a row, and didn't see many people during those days either. Eerie. I met a handful of people doing the Long Trail, a 280 mile trek from the MA/VT border up to Canada, presumably for some french fries and gravy. I can't imagine any other reason to go to Canada.

I made it to Hanover, NH in time to get picked up there by Mom and Dad (thanks so much for making it a breeze to get out to Seattle, 'rents!) and then fly to Jason and Becca's wedding. Airports are always disconcerting after months in the wilderness with like-minded souls, but Seattle itself was really nice. I even managed to get new shoes there, after throwing out the old ones with about 600 too many miles on them.

A 757 fuel pump encouraged me to take an extra day in Seattle, so I got to wander around town and soak in a really beautiful day. That did mean I'm a day farther behind than I'd planned, making my goal of finishing on August 11th a bit harder. No worries, as long as I have food and legs I can make it.

After finally getting back to Hanover and running a few errands, I headed northwards again... this time stopping after only 17 miles because the new shoes were brutalizing my ankle. I ended up taking a day off at the shelter 17 miles north of Hanover to heal up and wait out some bad weather, which was a great call in the end. Yesterday I covered 27 miles from that shelter to Glencliff, NH and a really nice hostel that shuttled me to wallyworld to replace my camera and sleep on a real, dry bunk. (Oh, did I not mention that on the day my ankle was killing me, my camera died too? It was a good day. My tent also collapsed during the night, getting all of my stuff wet. The sob story could continue, but I've been told that parentheticals shouldn't be too long, lest we forget we're in one.)

I'm about to leave Glencliff and start the White Mountains... today I ascend Mt. Mooselauke (a 3500' climb), and then two other decent hills (1500' and 2000', respectively), ending at a hut where I'm hoping to "work for stay". Ideally that work will entail sitting around looking beautiful, but we'll see.

I've made it to Dalton, MA, which is about 30 miles short of the Vermont border. I'm hoping that not walking today will mean that I'll really, really walk tomorrow and get into Vermont by the time I call it quits tomorrow evening.

I've been riding a bike all around town, so doing laundry and getting food has been a breeze. Sadly, though, I've got 3 days of food in my foodbag... and nine miles to go before I pick up 4 more days of food. So I may be hauling over 20lbs of food up Mount Greylock (the first real mountain since southern Virginia!), but that just means I'll be eating a whole lot more than normal. You'll hear no complaints from me on that score.

I've caught yet another group of friends in Dalton, most of whom have started to slow down to savor their time on the trail. I'm still of the finish-as-soon-as-possible mindset, especially because Mr. Burns and I seem to be firming up plans to finish the rest of the trail from Bear Mountain Bridge to Katahdin in the coming years. I'll take my time then!

The library here is closing now and I have to get back to the house I'm staying at because we're heading to an AYCE buffet soon and I'm not one to turn down that sweet, sweet acronym.